The Greek state is using individual terrorism to justify its attack on the Greek labour movement and Trotskyism

Towards the end of July the Greek media launched a campaign of
slander about the ideology of the terrorist organisation 17N (November
17),
claiming that it was a Trotskyist organisation. The Greek Marxists sent
a letter of protest to all the newspapers and channels, which was
published in two major newspapers. We are publishing this short article
on the
subject.

Towards the end of July the Greek news channels launched a campaign of slander about the ideology of the terrorist organisation 17N (November 17), claiming that it was a Trotskyist organisation. In this way they are trying to portray all Trotskyists as terrorists. The Greek Marxist paper Sosialistiki Ekfrasi sent a letter of protest to all the newspapers and channels, which was published in two major newspapers. We are publishing this short article on the subject.

For the past twenty-seven years the Greek state had a very good excuse to
take violent measures against the democratic rights and the movement of the
working class. This excuse was provided by the actions of the terrorist group
17N.

This organisation was founded in 1975 after the collapse of the military
dictatorship, its aim being to assassinate the cadres of the military
dictatorship. Later on, during the 1980s and 90s, it came to light that the
organisation was probably controlled by foreign and domestic secret agents and
its official ideological line was similar to Maoism, together with some
nationalist features.

Twenty-seven years after its foundation it seems that 17N's lifeline has
ended. The Simitis government has become very unpopular lately due to its
policies against the working class. The Greek bourgeoisie is doing everything in
its power to keep this government in power. It knows that a right-wing
government of the New Democracy will provoke a strong workers' movement. The
arrest of 17N members is seen as a good remedy for the declining popularity of
the Simitis government and a way of shifting attention away from the class
struggle and the government's policies, and towards the hunt for the terrorists.

Through the mass media the government and the ruling class, are trying to
justify last year's "Anti-Terrorist Law" - which limited democratic
rights - as a "necessary" law. That law has paved the way for similar
laws in the future. They are now trying to incriminate left-wing, socialist
ideas, especially Trotskyist ideas. During the early 1930s the father of the 17N
was a significant figure in the Trotskyist movement in Greece. This is being
exploited by the media to portray terrorist ideology as being the same as
Trotskyism.

The Marxist newspaper Sosialistiki Ekfrasi, that defends the ideas of
Trotsky in the Greek labour movement, has sent a letter of protest to several
newspapers which was published in two leading papers. In this letter we
explained the truth about Trotskyism and how it rejects individual terrorism.
There is no need for us to explain it here, as it has been thoroughly analysed
on the "In Defence of Marxism" web site, especially after the events
of September 11. As Trotskyists, we stand on the fundamental principles of Marx
and Engels, i.e. that the liberation of the working class is to be achieved by
the working class itself and not by any individual terrorist organisations.

This attack on Trotskyism today is an attack on the working class. It shows
how the ruling class understands that the movement of the working class, which
started last year with two general strikes, is on the road towards a
revolutionary alternative, with its final destination being inevitably the ideas
of Trotsky. For this reason they are now attacking Trotskyism.

However, they will not succeed. The ideas of Trotskyism, the authentic
revolutionary ideas of Marxism, will be victorious. Never have such reactionary
methods been able to stop the labour movement from moving towards these ideas of
working class emancipation. We Greek Trotskyists, gathered around the paper Sosialistiki
Ekfrasi, will continue to defend genuine Marxism within the Greek labour
movement, against the methods of state terrorism.